The Temple Pond
by recodan
Summary: Naruto is send hurtling to another world where he meets a certain team of genin and their jounin. And then they fight.


" Ramen, ramen, over the ocean blue, I'm half crazy, all for the love of you…" sand Naruto, pacing around the small murky pond.

" Kaka-sensei, please let me hit him." begged Sakura.

" Not until the monks say we're done." replied Kakashi, his eye twitching. He had a similar impulse, but he was fighting it.

" He's been singing the same song for a week!" said Sakura, pulling at her hair in frustration. For the past week they had been guarding a pond in a small temple. The monks claimed that around this time of year, strange things would be heard around it and objects found in it, and just to be sure they always hired guards.

" Sing with me!" said Naruto cheerfully.

" No." said Sasuke darkly. He was forcing himself to not charge up a Chidori to kill Naruto to end the horrible song. He mentally slapped Tsunade for giving them this mission. Since she had become Hokage the had gotten a number of annoying jobs, but this was by far the worst. He glanced over at the twelve year old blonde, who was carousing on top of the rocks lining the pond.

" Ah, our wonderful Shinobi!" said one of the monks, walking towards them. He was reading over a scroll.

_It's over!_ thought Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke in unison. Instantly, Kakashi was behind Naruto and tossed him towards Sakura, who battered him into the air. Sasuke brought the Lion Combo down on Naruto, sending him flying into the water. Sasuke landed triumphantly by the edge of the pond, high-fiveing his teammates.

" In only a few short hours the pond shall return to normal and you can go!" said the monk cheerfully.

_Wait…._

" Hours?"

" NARUTO!"

-----

" Why is he always late?" asked Rin rhetorically.

" Because he's lazy." replied Kakashi. Rin, Kakashi, and Minato sighed as the Uchiha came running into view.

" Hey, sorry!" apologized Obito with a laugh. " I was walking down the street and I found a hurt kitten, so I helped it out."

" Liar." said Rin under her breath.

" You've got to get more serious, Obito." said Minato, voice laden with frustration. Obito had talent, a strong bloodline, and good teammates, but he was such a slacker he had fallen behind everyone else in his age group. " Anyways, we have a mission today, so lets head out."

" Cool!" said Obito, smiling as he followed his teacher towards the village gate. " What is it?"

" Since the Stone village is beginning to stir up trouble, the Third thinks that it would be good to get the genin teams familiar with the patrol routes. We're going to do a simple one today that takes us between Kohona, a small temple, and a village near the border." explained Minato.

" A wise decision." said Kakashi without emotion. " Since it looks like the Stone village wants a war, we should be prepared for it."

" Now now, Kakashi." said Minato, warning off his cold apprentice. " Don't expect it to come to that."

" Yeah." said Rin, glancing at her Kakashi. " I'd rather we not have a war. I don't want to have to patch you guys up to much more."

" But your really good at it!" said Obito, giving Rin a smile.

" Obito, you sat on a cactus on our last mission." said Rin with a grimace. Obito blushed, remembering the incident. " I don't ever want to have to pull needles out of your butt again, or kunai or shuriken. Please, if war breaks out, don't get hit in your ass for once."

" Yeah yeah…." Obito turned his eyes to the ground, unfortunately missing the grin Rin gave him when nobody was looking.

----

" The monastery isn't far." said Minato as he and his team raced though the trees. Around them leaves and branches whistled by, a familiar sound when traveling by tree branch. The section of the forest they were in was old and tall, the sun nearly completely blotted out by foliage.

" Good. I need a break." said Obito, blinking his eyes. Even though he was wearing his goggles, his eyes fel like there was something in them. He hated that feeling, which is why he wore the orange eyewear, but it seemed to not be helping anymore.

" It would be better to carry on without one." said Kakashi, his voice cold.

" Kakashi, regular people need breaks." sighed Rin.

" I agree." said Minato, chiming in. " When we…"

" Everyone, stop!" Kakashi exclaimed, coming to a halt instantly. His team, while confused, followed suit. They could see his nose twitching under his mask. As the son of Kohona's White Fang he had inherited a nose that most ninja dogs would be jealous of, which had saved them many times.

" What is it?" asked Minato. He was quite concerned as he read the expression of terrow and awe on his students normally impassive face.

" I can detect someone ahead of us." said Kakashi, still sniffing. " Whoever he is, he's insanely powerful."

" Huh?" asked Obito, feeling a twinge of fear.

" I need more than that." said Minato. " How can you tell?"

" He has more chakra….sensei, he's got twenty or thirty times the chakra you do." said Kakashi. Rin gasped in astonishment, as Minato was one of the most powerful ninja in the village. Only the Third and the Sannin could compare to him. " And something else….his chakra doesn't smell right. It's like there's a second scent under his that's even more powerful and darker."

" This could be bad." said Minato, worriedly. " I've never heard of anything like that."

" Shit!" swore Kakashi suddenly. " He's heading right for us!"

----

_Okay, first order of business, kick Kakashi and Sasuke's ass. Second, figure out what the hell they did to me._ thought Naruto, looking around. He didn't know where he was, but it was dark and scary.

" Hey, Kakashi, come out!" he yelled angrily as he raced across a bough, far above the ground. " I'm gonna kill you!"

----

" Oh man." said Obito, looking over to his stunned teammate.

" How does he know who we are?" asked Rin, crouching down. They had hidden in one of the trees foliage, waiting to see who the person was, when the mysterious person had called out though the trees to them. He'd used a childlike voice, which had made him strangely scarier.

" Quiet." said Minato, shushing his genin. Below, they could see someone dressed in orange moving around.

" Orange?" whispered Obito in disbelief.

" He's probably so powerful he doesn't care about being hidden." said Kakashi, voice quavering. When the person had called his name out, he had nearly peed his pants in terror.

" Aww, thanks!" said a voice from above. They all looked up in surprise, seeing a what looked like a small boy with yellow hair and orange clothes above them. He had strange marks on his cheeks and was smiling viciously.

" Move!" shouted Minato. The genin obeyed instantly, leaping from their hiding place to the ground below, where they could move more easily. Minato drew a kunai at lightning speed and lunged at the attacker. To his surprise the person didn't even blink, allowing Minato to stab him. The boy disappeared in a puff of smoke.

" A shadow clone!" exclaimed Minato, looking back to his students. He leapt to their side as they armed themselves.

" That's pretty good, Kakashi-sensei!" said the boy, landing near them on all fours like a fox. He had a psychotic grin on his face. " Why did you have the Uchiha Avenger and Mega Medic disguise themselves like that?"

-----

_That out to annoy them_. Thought Naurto, giggling as he gave his poorly disguised teammates a nickname. For some reason, probably them underestimating him again, Kakashi had disguised himself as a kid, Sakura as some girl who looked just like her, and Sasuke as some random Uchiha. _Those are cool goggles, though._

-----

" Is this guy for real?" said Rin, feeling panicked. She had never fought someone who could laugh with the Yellow Flash facing him in combat, and somehow, he knew their abilities already.

" Behind me." ordered Minato, stepping in front of his students. " I don't know who you are," he said, addressing the strange assassian " or why you are after my students, but I will not let you harm them."

" Huh?" said the boy, blinking. " Who's this guy?"

" Kohona's Yellow Flash." said Minato with a smirk. He knew most people would be intimidated by his title and wouldn't blame the blonde if he ran.

" Yellow Flash?" sai the boy, cocking his head to the side. " Didn't you die a while ago or something?"

_Shit!_ thought Minato, wheeling around and searching for the sneak attack. However, none came. He turned, eyeing the boy again, though he knew it couldn't be a boy that age with that kind of power. _He played me like that….he hinted of sneak attack and got me to turn, but didn't even attack! He's toying with me!_

" He talks weird." said Obito. " He called Kakashi 'sensei' and me and Rin something, he got sensei to turn…what's with this guy?"

" Genjutsu!" cried Kakashi, eyes wide with terror. " Sensei, he's using some sort of verbal genjutsu!"

_That's how he's tricking us!_ thought Minato as fake confusion went over the boys face. _He's brilliant! I could never pull something like that off!_

" Break it!" commanded Minato.

----

_Fine, whatever, I'm attacking._ thought Naruto, channeling chakra into his feet and leaping. Kakashi-sensei and the others kept saying weird things and he had lost his patience.

----

BAM.

Minato had just closed his eyes to focus his chakra when a fist connected with his gut.

_He knew we'd break his technique and attacked!_ thought Minato, reeling momentarily from the hit and opening his eyes. He almost wished he hadn't as twelve more punched and five kicks hit him, knocking him backwards past his students. _More clones?_ he thought as he sailed though the air. There were a number of identical copies charging towards his students. However, Kakashi and Rin reacted quickly and each managed to stick a kunai in a clone before going down in a hail of hits. Strangely, the clones barely tried to dodge.

_Oh god._ thought Minato as he struck the a tree. _The clones don't dodge. They just let themselves die. His technique has something to do with them. _

" Hey, get up. I know your faking." said the boy, kicking Kakashi in the arm. The white haired boy was doubled over in pain, clutching his broken ribs.

" Get away from him!" yelled Obtio, leaping to his feet and drawing a kunai. He was instantly surrounded by five clones.

" Don't kill them!" said Minato as he gasped for breath. " They don't dodge, so they have some secret!"

" How the hell do we fight them then?" asked Obito, looking around in terror.

" I have to kill the real one." yelled Minato, racing forward and gathering chakra for the Rasengan. His students looked on in awe as their teacher formed the famous energy sphere and rammed it into the one copy that had hung back.

" The real one keeps himself safe!" said Minato triumphantly as the boy gasped in pain, the Rasengan tearing him to shreds. A moment later, however, there was the tell late puff of smoke of a clone vanishing.

" No!" shouted Minato. _He tricked me again?_

" That's pretty good." said a voice from above them as the clones on the ground restrained the genin. They looked up and saw the boy watching from a branch, playing with a yoyo. " Let's see how you like it!"

_He couldn't have…._Minato stood stunned as a clone appeared by the boy and began to swirl chakra into the boys hand, forming a perfect Rasengan. _He figured it out? That's not possible!_

" Rasengan!" shouted the boy, leaping towards Minato. The jounin felt paralyzed. The boy was coming so slowly, he knew there was some other trick going on, but he couldn't figure out what it was! In a instant, doubt and terror he hadn't felt since he was a genin flooded into him. _I'm still in the genjutsu!_ was the last horrified thought he had before the glowing sphere was rammed into him.

Restrained, the genin were unable to do anything as the mysterious Shinobi struck their teacher with the attack, sending him flying backwards where he struck a tree, embedding deep into the wood.

" Minato-sensei!" cried Rin, trying to escape the clones grasp, but there was too many. A moment later, however, her teacher dissapered in a puff of smoke, revealing he had been a shadow clone.

" Your good!" said the real Minato, landing nearby. " I didn't figure out the genjutsu until the last second. It doesn't create a illusion, it just confuses the target."

" Woah." said Obito in awe. _Sensei is so awesome!_

" That's why you kept saying such strange things." said Minato, forming a hand seal. Ten clones appeared by his side, each forming a Rasengan. " That's a ingenious technique."

" Whatever." said the boy, looking bored.

" Let's finish this then." said the Minato-clones in unsion.

" Fine with me." said the boy, forming a seal. " Mass Shadow Clones!"

_Mass?_ thought Kakashi, still dazed. _Oh._ he thought, looking around. _There's a million clones now. _

Obito pretended not to notice as Kakashi wet himself.

" That's….even more impressive." said Minato warily, looking around. There were clones on every branch, bough, and other space you could stand on as far as he could see. It was like being in a orange grove, only instead of fruit there were psychotic Shinobi grinning crazily. He sighed as the clones dispersed the Rasengans, re-absorbing the chakra. " I've only got one technique that can match that."

" What?" said one of the clones in genuine interest.

" My summoning technique!" said Minato, biting his thumb.

----

_Shit! I need to summon something too! I hope the Frog Boss answers this time!_

----

" Summoning Technique!" shouted Minato, pressing his thumb to the ground. He cringed as he noticed the boy doing the same. There was a monumental burst of smoke and chakra. _I hope Gamabunta can face this guy._ he thought as the giant frog appeared.

" What's this?" said Gamabunta, looking around until he saw Minato. " Oh ho! Got yourself into a big fight, eh? Well, who are we against?"

" Some incredibly powerful person and his summons." replied Minato, leaping onto Gamabunta's head.

" Oh? What is it? A snake?" said Gamabunta, looking towards the other fading cloud of smoke. As it passed, it revealed a small boy holding something in his hand that was squggling.

" Pops! Help!" came a small voice. Gamabunta's warty skin paled.

" Gamachi!" roared Gamabunta. " You bastard, how did you summon my son?"

" …" The boy was silent, staring into his hand

" Your son?" asked Minato, confused.

" That bastard summoned my son, even though he's barely a tadpole!" said Gamabunta, sounding terrified. Minato's head snapped as he looked towards the boy.

_That's not possible! He couldn't summon one of the frogs without signing the contract….but he copied Rasengen so quickly, it might be possible. But how did he know to summon Gamabunata's child?_

" I'll make a deal!" shouted Minato down to his motionless opponent and his army of clones. " I'll send my summon away and you let his son go!"

" Uh…okay." said the boy. With a nod Gamabunta vanished, the tadpole following a moment later.

" You're the most powerful opponent I've ever faced." said Minato, landing near the boy. The clones quickly flanked him, cutting off all methods of escape. " Your tactics, ninjutsu, and genjtusu are more advanced than anything I've ever seen."

" Well duh!" said the real boy, putting his heads behind his head in a relaxed pose. " As the future Hokage, I've got to be really strong!"

Minato's heart nearly stopped. He had thought this ninja was merely after them….but he was after the village. Most likely he'd break in, kill the Third, and disguise himself as the Hokage. While the idea of the Third losing was hard to imagine….this boy was so powerful it could happen. The Sannin were on a long mission at the moment so they wouldn't be able to help, if they could.

" I never expected to use this." sighed Minato, forming the seals for the Leaf's most forbidden technique, the summoning of the Death God. " But to keep the village safe, I guess it's necessary."

At that moment, the horde of clones vanished.

" Aw, crap, I used to much chakra summoning the frog! I'm all out!" said the lone boy, slapping himself in the face. Minato instantly stopped his technique. Now that it was one on one, he could fight the boy more evenly.

" I'm low too." said Minato, flexing his fingers. " I guess it's taijutsu then."

" Hey, Kaka-sensei, is this a genjutsu or something?" said the boy, his face flashing with dawning comprehension. " This is some sort of training, isn't it! While you and the rest relax, I fight some illusionary loser and waste my chakra! You ass, sensei!"

_He's beginning the confusion technique again? But he's out of chakra?_ thought Minato, quite startled. _Wait! Kakashi said he had some special chakra! That's it! I have to end this now!_

As fast as he could go he lunged forward, driving a kunai into the ninja's stomach. The boy gave a startled yelp, blinked, and fell back motionlessly.

" That's…it?" said Minato, blinking in confusion. _Perhaps without his chakra, he couldn't fight._

" Sensei!" said Obito, rushing over. After the clones had vanished, Rin had begun to heal Kakashi's injuries, but Obito was mostly unharmed.

" It's over, I guess." said Minato, looking at the motionless boy. " He must have used to much chakra. I've never seen someone use techniques like that, so I bet they had some serious strain."

" Well, nobody can keep up with you, sensei!" said Obito, smiling.

" Well, he did. I don't even know how he could possibly summon a frog without the contract, unless he already killed Jiraiya-sensei and signed it. I bet that's not it, though. If I beat him, sensei could have too." said Minato, looking over to Kakashi and Rin.

" A Thousand Years of Pain!"

Minato turned in horror as Obito gave a small squeak and fell to the ground, heavily. The boy was on his feet, the wound healed an holding a strange hand seal.

" You deserved that, bastard." said the boy, but his voice had become deeper an darker. " What the hell were you doing stabbing me?" he said, looking up at Minato.

" What did you do to him?" said Minato, settling into a combat position.

" Uh, what did I say?" snarled the boy.

_A thousand…Obito…._ thought Minato, looking at his motionless student and nearly bursting into tears. He'd never imagined a technique like that. If he lived though this, he'd devote every moment to saving his student.

" I will kill you." said Minato furiously, facing his opponent. However, the boy had become feral looking, with slit-like eye and fangs, a evil, vicous aura of chakra swirling around him.

" That's…impossible." said Kakashi in horror.

" What?" asked Rin, barely able to breath as she watched her teacher face down the seemingly unstoppable ninja.

" His chakra….it's a hundred times what it was….and I know why." said Kakashi weakly. " Sensei, he's a demon! He's the Nine-Tails, I can smell it now!"

" Kaka-sensei….that was mean." said the boy, smiling far more evilly than any of his previous smirks.

" You know your not supposed to say that."

_I can't win…_thought Minato in despair. Even with every ninja in the village, this boy could kill him. No, not boy, monster. _I'll die, but I'll save everyone._ thought Minato, forming the seals for the Death God technique again.

Suddenly, there was a sucking sound from above. Minato and the demon looked up in surprise as the red chakra was pulled into some vortex, followed moments later by the small body of the demon. The vortex vanished a moment later, leaving everything still and unnaturally quiet.

-----

" Your back!" said Sakura, hugging the wet Naruto.

" What?" said Naruto, anger forgotten in his confusion.

" After you fell in, we couldn't find you, but the monks had a technique that brought you back!" said Sakura, crying tears of joy. " Where were you?"

" I…thought I was in a genjutsu." said Naruto quietly. " I thought…."

" Naruto, what you saw was probably some sort of other world." said Kakashi. " I talked with the monks. Apparently, this has happened twice before. You probably encountered things a lot like this world."

" Yeah!" said Naruto, eyes snapping wide. " You were there, but you were a kid, and Sasuke and Sakura were there, but they looked different! I think you guys were a genin team! There was this guy with spiky yellow hair who knew the Rasengan and could summon Gamabunta too!"

" Then I know what happened." said Kakashi, smiling. " I bet you fell into some alternate world where you were the sensei and we were the students!"

" Huh?" said Naruto, confused.

" Naruto, the guy with the Rasengan…you described yourself." said Sasuke, poking Naruto's pointy hair.

" Woah!" said Naruto in surprise. " I made jounin?"

" In an alternate dimension." said Sakura flatly. " Don't think it'll happen here."

" Sakura-chan…" whined Naruto as he got to his feet.

-----

" The Nine Tails?" said the Third in alarm. When Minato and his team had limped into Kohona, he had expected the worst. But 'the worst' just didn't cover the Kyuubi.

" Disguised as a small boy." said Minato, massaging his acing jaw. " He tricked us at every turn, had insane chakra, and right before he disappeared I think he was about to change to his true self."

" What could have taken him…." said the Third, sitting back in his chair.

" I believe he might have been summoned." said Minato. " I've heard from Gamabunta that it's something like that."

" But to summon the Kyuubi…." The Third looked terrified.

" We need to start developing a better technique for dealing with demons." said Minato wearily. " I'm pretty sure it will be back, and I don't think it will be stopping by to have a meal at the ramen stand. It'll be here to kill us all."

" Agreed." said the Third gravely. " We need to be prepared."

----

" How is he?" asked Rin, looking at the crying infant. The seal on it's stomach was still bold.

" He'll be fine." said Minato, holding his son tenderly.

" It was pretty dumb of the fox to show up for a rematch with you, wasn't it?" laughed Obito, slapping his teacher on the back.

" He's just lucky my wife wasn't out there." said Minato, smiling as he handed his son to Kushina, who cradled the baby tenderly.

" We owe a lot to Kakashi." said Minato mournfully. Rin and Obito's faces fell momentarily. It had been years since Kakashi had died on the Stone Village war, but it still hurt. " Without the Chidori, I don't think we could have held it back long enough for me to finish my seal."

" Yeah." said Rin with a sad laugh. " Ol' Foxy sure didn't expect fifty lightning punches to the gut."

" Or me to get revenge for the Thousand Years of Pain." said Obito, smirking at the memory of firing a Grand Fireball up the Kyuubi's ass.

" I'm glad that wasn't as bad as I thought." said Minato, laughing along with Rin. " I guess he was just coping a feel."

Obito blushed as everyone in the room began to guffaw at his expense.


End file.
